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Tag Archive for art supplies

I use several products manufactured by James Groves. Jim specializes in historical painting mediums and ingredients. I’ve tried almost all of his products and they are unfailingly excellent–world class. I use his 19th Century Copal Oil varnish and Siccatif Courtrai every day. Both ingredients are staples in my practice. By itself, the copal varnish is too…

I am really glad that Blue Ridge Paints is taking orders again. I learned last month about their fire when I went to their web site to place an order. I was concerned that they might not be able to recover. Their paints are very good and are offered at a reasonable price. More and…

I’ve written before about the various methods used to transfer designs to canvas or other surfaces. There are three ways to do it: projector, grid, or cartoon. Typically, I use grids. Grids can handle any scale and I like working out final design elements on the canvas grid before picking up the brush. I can grid off a sketch and…

I’ve written before about my oil medium. I wasn’t exaggerating when I wrote that my medium, one I’ve used for years, is the result of many, many trials. I haven’t used every possible medium, of course, but I’ve tried a lot of them. No one can try all possible combinations. Recently, I revisited one of my…

I had two more painting sessions on Washington Square. I finally got the pigeons in there (can you see all 7 of them*?). Washington Square has a hole in the middle which is supposedly a no-no. Cleveland has a painting by Poussin with the same empty center, and it’s very effective. It took me awhile to…

I whined about my previously-praised easel earlier this month. I’ve had the Utrecht-branded easel less than a year, and I complained about having to replace one of its casters. The way the casters are attached is poorly implemented; once one detaches, it’s impossible to reattach. While I was replacing the caster, the support brace split. #@!**@#!!! I glued…

Anyone who knows me knows that one of my hot button issues is premium-priced art supplies that are actually inferior, or, as is often the case, pure crap. So don’t get me started. Recently I opened a bottle of black oil from Williamsburg. Although the bottle had been purchased some time back, to my disgust,…